Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)

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From Draft NOtices, April-June 2014

LETTERS NEEDED!

— Isidro Ortiz, PhD
    

Russia’s recent deployment of military forces into Crimea has precipitated talk about a “new cold war.” Those of us who lived through the old cold war may recall that it was an era of unchecked militarism in which challenges to expansion of military influence often did not meet with success. Obscured by the specter of the new ideological and political struggle was a recent setback for militarism and at least a temporary victory for efforts to curb the intrusion and influence of the military in the public schools of California. (See update at bottom.)

On February 14, the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing rejected a proposal to amend Title 5 of the California Education Code. The proposal would have established a special authorization for holders of Designated Subjects Teaching Credentials in Basic Military Drill and Reserve Officer Training Corps. The defeated change would have authorized military instructors, usually retired members of the armed forces, to teach physical education in California high schools. The former military personnel would be exempt from holding a bachelor’s degree, the minimum degree usually held by public high school teachers and a prerequisite to earning a teaching credential in California, and could obtain a “special authorization” by way of passing a state test focused on subject content. As reported by Meredith Adams of EdSource, “JROTC and military drill are high school electives that use Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard curriculum covering fitness, leadership activities, civics and U.S. History, among other topics. California has 350 JROTC high school programs, each with a minimum of 100 students. The rule change also would have affected instructors in the California Cadet Corps program who a hold a credential to teach ROTC or military drill.”

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From Draft NOtices, January-March 2014

— Rick Jahnkow
 
    

In May 2013 the Military Times newspapers carried an article titled, “Services Prepare for Scant Recruiting Year.” It began with the following sentence:

Finding recruits to join the military in 2014 could be increasingly challenging, even with declining recruiting goals, defense and service personnel officials are warning Congress.

It went on to say that it is hard to see the problem because the active-duty military has been meeting its goals for quality and quantity of recruits, but then the Army Reserve missed its goals in the first quarter of fiscal 2013. The article also reported that on April 17, Jessica Wright, acting undersecretary of defense for personnel readiness, warned the Senate Armed Services Committee of a possible future recruiting problem due to the improving economy.

Wright’s statement to the committee pointed out that “a slow economy makes recruiting less challenging,” but “signs of economic improvement” could soon end the current optimistic recruiting environment and, together with other factors, lead to recruiting difficulties.

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From Draft NOtices, January-March 2014

— Jesus D. Mendez Carbajal, Project YANO Intern
    

Under the Obama administration there have been more than two million deportations to date, an average of 1,100 people every day, which is a higher rate than that for any other president in the history of the United States. More than 100,000 of those have come from California. Deportations have been facilitated in California via the implementation of the Secure Communities policy in 2009, which established the sharing of the fingerprint database between local law enforcement and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

The proposed immigration reform bill’s halt and continued deportations have sparked community organizers and activists nationwide to mobilize and stage several nonviolent civil disobedience actions calling for the stopping of all deportations and the shutdown of ICE.

On June 15, 2012, the Obama administration implemented the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. With this step, the first group of undocumented migrants -- migrant youths -- was temporarily protected from deportation. Then, on November 15, 2013, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), in partnership with the Department of Defense (DoD), released a policy memorandum known as “parole in place.” This allows for a case-by-case discretionary exemption from deportation for undocumented dependents (i.e., children, spouse and/or parents) of members of the armed forces and military veterans.

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Ninth CIRCUIT COURT RULING: CONFRONTING MILITARISM BY USING EQUAL ACCESS TO HIGH SCHOOLS

When the military comes to your local high school, you have a legal right to give students an opposing view. This has been the position taken by federal district courts in Florida, Pennsylvania and Illinois and two federal appellate courts. The most broadly-worded decision came from a case that COMD took to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the 1980s. Here is the background:

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